Two-Handed Crank-Action Exercise Device and Method

ABSTRACT

A two-handed crank action exercise device includes a crank mechanism that is supported at a spaced elevation above ground level, and features a crank arm radiating outwardly away from a rotational axis and a hand grip carried on the crank arm at a radial distance from the rotational axis for manual grasping by a user to drive rotation of the crank arm. An adjustable resistance mechanism is coupled to the crank mechanism to provide an adjustable amount of resistance to said crank mechanism. The hand grip is of sufficient length to enable simultaneous manual grasping thereof by both hands of said user for two-handed operation of said crank mechanism.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/526,813, filed Jun. 29, 2017, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to exercise equipment, and more particularly to a crank-action exercise machine using two-handed operation of a singular hand crank.

BACKGROUND

It the field of exercise equipment, it is known to exercise the upper body using a hand crank machine featuring two individual crank arms disposed on opposite sides of a shared crank hub that is coupled to a resistance wheel via a belt or chain transmission. In similar manner to a bicycle, the hand grips of the two crank arms are conventionally offset from one another by a fixed angle of 180-degrees around the rotational axis of the crank mechanism. The user sits with their torso spanning across the working plane of the resistance wheel so that each hand grips a respective one of the two cranks on a respective side of this working plane. The diametrically opposite positioning of the hand grips across the rotational axis means that, in any given instant, the user's hands are moving in opposite directions. That is, as the left hand is moving forwardly away from the user's torso during a given half of the crank's orbital path around the rotational axis, the right hand is moving rearwardly back toward the user's torso, and vice versa.

Applicant has developed a distinctly new hand crank exercise device and associated methods of use that significantly depart from such conventional bicycle-style hand cranks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a two-handed crank action exercise device comprising:

an upright support structure;

a crank mechanism carried on said upright structure at a spaced elevation above ground level, and comprising a crank arm radiating outwardly away from a rotational axis of said crank mechanism, and a hand grip carried on said crank arm at a radial distance from said rotational axis for manual grasping by a user to drive rotation of the crank arm about said rotational axis; and

an adjustable resistance mechanism coupled to the crank mechanism to provide an adjustable amount of resistance to said crank mechanism;

wherein said hand grip is of sufficient length to enable simultaneous manual grasping thereof by both hands of said user for two-handed operation of said crank mechanism.

In one embodiment, said crank arm is a sole crank arm of the crank mechanism.

In one embodiment, said hand grip is a sole hand grip of said crank mechanism.

Preferably said hand grip is sufficiently long to reach fully across a torso said user for manual grasping of said hand grip at opposing sides of the user's torso.

In one embodiment, there is an upright support structure having a bottom end held in a stationary position, wherein said crank mechanism is carried on said upright support structure.

The upright structure may be rigidly installed in a working environment via anchored attachment to a floor or ground structure.

Alternatively, the upright structure may be mounted atop a floor seated base of greater footprint than the upright structure and the crank mechanism supported thereon.

Preferably, the crank mechanism is supported in a height-adjustable manner to adjust an elevation of the rotational axis of the crank mechanism to a suitable working height for a given user or exercise.

Preferably, the upright support structure is height-adjustable to adjust an elevation of the rotational axis of the crank mechanism to a suitable working height for a given user or exercise.

Preferably, the adjustable resistance mechanism is carried with the crank mechanism, whereby movement of the crank mechanism to a different elevation also adjusts an elevation of the adjustable resistance mechanism.

Preferably, there is an actuation mechanism by which raising and lowering of the crank mechanism is driven.

Said actuation mechanism may comprise a manual actuator handle for manually driven operation of said actuation mechanism.

In one embodiment, the actuation mechanism comprises a gear train operably connected to the manual actuator handle to provide mechanical advantage in raising of the crank mechanism.

Preferably the hand grip is at least 12-inches long.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of using the forgoing device comprising, with said hand grip held in a user's two hands, manually driving rotation of said hand grip about the rotational axis of the crank mechanism using both of said user's two hands.

In one mode of use, the method includes occupying a working position facing across the rotational axis of the crank mechanism with the hand grip pointing laterally across the user's torso, and driving said rotation of the hand grip by performing alternating push and pull strokes respectively moving away from and back toward the user's torso.

In one such instance, the hand grip spans fully across the user's torso and, in said working position, and the user's two hands hold the hand grip on opposite sides of the user's torso.

In another mode of use, the method includes occupying a working position facing along the rotational axis of the crank mechanism with the hand grip pointing toward the user's torso, and driving said rotation of said hand grip by performing alternating strokes of opposing lateral direction relative to the user's torso.

Said working position may be a stand-up position.

Alternatively, said working position may be a laid-down position.

Alternatively, said working position may be a seated position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is a front side perspective view of a two-handed crank-action exercise device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the exercise device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a right side elevational view of the exercise device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a left side elevational view showing the exercise device of FIG. 1.

In the figures, like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The figures show a two-handed crank-action exercise device according to one exemplary embodiment, to which the present invention is not specifically limited. The device is generally made up of a generally planar base 10 for seating atop a horizontal ground or floor structure, a height adjustable upright structure 12 standing perpendicularly upward from the seated horizontal plane of the base 10, a support frame 14 projecting forwardly from the upright structure 12 near the top end thereof, and a crank mechanism 16 and resistance mechanism 18 operably interconnected to one another and carried on the upright structure 12 via the support frame 14.

The illustrated base features a skeletal framework with a rectangular frame made up of two parallel side beams 22, 28 and two parallel cross-beams 24, 26 connected perpendicularly between the side beams 20, 28 at front and rear ends thereof. The upright structure 12 is mounted atop one of the side beams 28. The rectangular space between the side beams is preferably covered with a decking plate (not shown) to create a user platform on which a user may stand during use of the device in a stand-up working position, though other non-standing working positions are also described elsewhere herein.

The resistance mechanism 18 may be a resistance wheel assembly featuring a flywheel 19 whose hub 19 a is supported for rotation on a rotation axis lying in a same transverse direction of the device as the cross-beams of the base frame, and a friction brake member 34 adjustably engaged with the flywheel at a face or outer periphery thereof. The crank mechanism 16 features a hub 16 a rotatably supported for rotation about the same rotation axis as the flywheel. The flywheel is supported within a housing 32, which in turn is attached to the upright structure 12 by the support frame 14. In the illustrated example, based on an initial prototype of the invention, the crank and resistance mechanisms are both supported a short distance in front of the upright structure 12 in an upright plane neighboured by the side beam 28 of the base frame 10 and occupied by the upright structure 12 mounted thereon.

It will be appreciated that the design of the base 10 may vary. The relatively large footprint of the base 10 shown in the figures, and the robust metal tubing framework thereof, provides notable stability to same in the event that the frame is merely seated in place and not fastened down to the underlying floor or ground structure. Alternatively, the base may be bolted or otherwise anchored to the underlying floor or ground structure, in which case a base of smaller footprint may be used. For example, a base flange of smaller size than the illustrated base framework may be attached at the bottom end of the height adjustable upright structure 12, and bolted down to the underlying ground or floor structure to anchor the entire device in a stationary position.

A resistance adjustment mechanism is provided in the form of a brake adjustment lever 34 a projecting from a top of the housing 32 of the flywheel mechanism to adjust the acting strength of the friction brake member on the periphery of the flywheel, and thereby control the braking force exerted on the flywheel by the friction member in order to control the level of resistance experienced when the user operates the crank mechanism 16. The friction brake member may be a friction belt engaged around the outer periphery of the flywheel, a friction pad abutted against the outer periphery of the flywheel, or a brake caliper acting on a face of the flywheel. Other forms of flywheel resistance may alternatively be employed, for example magnetic flywheel braking. Alternatively, instead of a flywheel relying on an external braking source, a fan-based resistance mechanism may be used, where a fan wheel replaces the flywheel, and the air resistance exerted on the fan blades as they move through the air controls the resistance experienced by the user. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to any particular resistance mechanism. Likewise, the resistance adjustment mechanism need not necessarily be a hand operated lever, and could be any other suitable actuator, such a hand operated control knob or dial.

While the illustrated embodiment places the hubs of the flywheel and the crank on the same rotational axis, other embodiments may have these supported on spaced-apart but parallel rotational axis, and linked together via a transmission. For example, a belt or chain entrained between pulleys or gears on the rotational hubs of the crank and resistance mechanisms may form a transmission therebetween by which manual rotation of the crank is transmitted as a rotational input to the resistance mechanism to drive the flywheel, fan or other rotational member thereof. All of the aforementioned types of resistance mechanisms, and the belt or chain transmissions used therewith, are well known in the art, having been previously employed for similar crank-resistance purposes in prior hand-crank and exercise bicycle equipment, and thus are not described herein in further detail.

The crank mechanism features a crank arm 38 that projects radially outward from the hub of the crank mechanism at one end of the resistance mechanism housing 32. At or near a distal end of the crank arm 38 furthest from the crank hub, a manual grip bar 40 projects perpendicularly from the crank arm 38 to lie parallel to the shared rotational axis of the crank and resistance mechanisms, and project further outwardly from the working plane in which the flywheel of the resistance mechanism rotates. In the illustrated embodiment, the crank arm 378 is a flat metal plate journaled on the same shaft as the flywheel.

Unlike prior hand crank exercise devices where a separate hand grip is provided on each side of the working plane for operation by a respective hand of a user who straddles the working plane of the resistance wheel, the crank of the presently disclosed invention features only the one grip bar 40 situated on a respective side of the working plane occupied by the resistance wheel. No second grip bar is situated on the opposing second side of the resistance wheel. The grip bar 40 has an axial length that preferably exceeds the width of the user's torso, and in the illustrated embodiment, has a purely linear form that can be manually grasped at any selected area along the length of the bar. This way, a user can stand beside the working plane of the resistance wheel on the same side thereof as the grip bar 40, and face forwardly or rearwardly toward and across the shared rotational axis of the crank and flywheel so that the grip bar lies transversely across the user's torso, whereupon the user adopts a two-handed grip of the bar, with each hand situated just laterally outward of the torso.

To enable this, the grip bar preferably has an axial length of between 12 and 40 inches, and more preferably between 18 and 36 inches. The bar is thus long enough to substantially reach across the torso of an average user to enable grasping of the bar with one's hands situated shoulder-width apart, though the bar may alternatively be gripped with the hands closer together in front of the torso. The hand grip features an inner rod rigidly affixed to the crank arm, and an outer sleeve journaled on the inner rod for free rotation therearound. This enables more comfortable gripping by the user, where there is no relative motion between the hands of the user and the grasped exterior surface of the outer sleeve that is freely rotatable on the inner rod of the grip bar.

In the first type of working position facing toward and across the rotational axis of the crank, the user can perform a cyclical push/pull motion on the machine, in which both hands move in synchronous fashion in the same orbital direction around the rotational axis of the crank and flywheel on the same side of the resistance wheel's working plane. During one half of the cycle, the user's hands perform a push stroke forcing the grip bar away from the torso, and during the other half-cycle, the user's hands perform a pull stroke drawing the grip bar back toward the torso. The cyclical motion may be performed in either direction. In one direction, the hands perform the push stroke during a top half of the grip bar's cyclical motion around the crank axis, and perform the pull stroke during the bottom half of the cyclical path. In the other direction, the push and pull strokes instead respectively occupy the bottom and top halves of the cyclical motion.

In another working position, instead of facing toward and across the rotational axis of the crank and flywheel from a position in front or behind the grip bar, the user instead stands further outwardly from the resistance wheel's working plane at a position beyond the free end 40 a of the grip bar 40, and thus faces along the rotational axis of the crank toward the resistance wheel's working plane so that the free end 40 a of the hand grip 40 points toward the user's torso. The user reaches his/her arms in front of their torso and grasps the grip bar 40 in both hands, and then revolves the grip bar around the crank's rotational axis in either direction. Instead of the cyclical motion involving alternating push and pull strokes moving anteriorly and posteriorly away from and back toward the torso, the cyclical motion in this working position instead involves strokes of opposing lateral direction back and forth across the torso during top and bottom halves of the grip bar's orbital motion around the crank axis. Performance of this cycle in one direction around the rotational axis results in a leftward-moving stroke of the hands and grip during the top half of the cycle, and a rightward-moving stroke of the hands and grip during the bottom half of the cycle. In the other direction, the leftward and rigthward strokes instead respectively occupy the bottom and top halves of the cyclical motion.

Similar push-pull strokes or laterally alternating strokes may also be performed in seated or laid-down positions, for example using a chair or workout bench positioned on the grip bar's side of the resistance wheel's working plane.

Because both hands are disposed on the same grip, they always reside at the same angular position around the rotational axis of the crank at any given instant, and thus share the same instantaneous travel direction. So in the push/pull exercise cycle, where the user faces across the crank's rotational axis, both hands simultaneously occupy either the push stroke or the pull stroke, thus moving in the same direction relative to the user's torso. Likewise in the laterally alternating exercise cycle, where the user faces along the crank's rotational axis, both hands simultaneously occupy either the leftward-moving stroke or the rightward-moving stroke, thus moving in the same direction relative to the user's torso.

For the purpose of adjusting the height of the crank mechanism to accommodate standing, seated or laid-down working positions, and to accommodate the varying stature of different users, the height-adjustable upright structure 12 features an actuation mechanism for raising and lowering the crank and wheel carrying portion of the upright structure. In the illustrated embodiment, the actuation mechanism features a manually operated actuator handle 42 by which the user manually powers the lifting and lowering action of the height-adjustable upright structure.

More particularly, the height-adjustable upright structure in the illustrated embodiment is a manually powered telescopic jack, having a lower post 44 affixed atop a base flange 46, which in turn is welded or otherwise affixed to the side beam of the base's skeletal frame. An upper tube 48 is telescopically received externally over the lower post 44 and carries the support frame 14 on which the crank and resistance mechanisms are mounted so that upward and downward telescopic motion of the upper tube 48 along the lower post 44 raises and lowers the crank and resistance mechanisms relative to the base 10 of the device. The actuation handle 42 is coupled to an input shaft of a gear housing 50 affixed to a side of the upper tube 48 opposite the support frame 14. In the illustrated embodiment, the actuation handle 42 is pivotally coupled to the input shaft of the gear housing so as to be movable between a stowed position hanging downwardly alongside the upright structure, and an operating position extending laterally out from the upright structure 12.

The actuation handle 42 has two-ninety degree bends therein to divide the handle into three different legs, particularly a connection leg 42 a that defines a clevis-equipped end of the handle that is pivotally coupled to the input shaft of the gear box by a cross-pin 43, an intermediate leg 42 b lying perpendicularly of the connection leg 42 a, and an end leg 42 c extending perpendicularly from the intermediate leg 42 b in the opposite direction from the connection leg 42 a. In the operating position of the handle, the connection leg 42 a lies generally parallel to the gear box's input shaft, whereby the intermediate leg 42 b defines a crank arm by which the end leg 42 c is offset from the axis of the gear box's input shaft so that the end leg 42 c can be manually grasped and rotated around the input shaft axis to drive the gear box, as shown in FIG. 2. The gear train inside the gear box applies mechanical advantage between the manual cranking action of the user and the internal mechanism of the jack that raises and lowers the upper tube thereof.

Hand cranked telescopic jacks of this type are commercially available, and so further details of the internal actuation mechanism are omitted herein. It will be appreciated that another style of height-adjustable upright may be used in place of a hand-cranked telescopic jack, and may include a powered drive input rather than a manually operated handle. The adjustable vertical height of the main cranking mechanism facilitates use of the device by any size, shape and gender of user, and allows for the targeted isolation of muscle groups as desired by the user. That is, changing the height of the hand crank relative to a particular user's torso can change the particular muscle groups worked by the two-handed cranking action on the singular hand grip of the device.

In summary, the device is a crank action exercise machine requiring the operator to turn a single crank arm with two hands. The device can be used standing, or lying on a bench or with other means of support in order to isolate certain muscle groups. The hardware which requires operator input can be adjusted in order to accommodate person(s) of all statures and sexes. The machine is designed to provide variable resistance as chosen by the user in order to facilitate both muscular and cardiovascular full body training. The device is mounted to a base which can either be securely fastened to the floor of a given facility which will withstand the input/operating forces and react them into the surface onto which the device is mounted, or with a platform which allows the user to react the forces required to operate the machine back into its own base, resulting in a net zero external force being applied to the machine, allowing the machine to free stand and be located anywhere in a given facility without being securely mounted.

Since various modifications can be made in my invention as herein above described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense. 

1. A two-handed crank action exercise device comprising: a crank mechanism supported or supportable at a spaced elevation above ground level, and comprising a crank arm radiating outwardly away from a rotational axis of said crank mechanism, and a hand grip carried on said crank arm at a radial distance from said rotational axis for manual grasping by a user to drive rotation of the crank arm about said rotational axis; and an adjustable resistance mechanism coupled to the crank mechanism to provide an adjustable amount of resistance to said crank mechanism; wherein said hand grip is of sufficient length to enable simultaneous manual grasping thereof by both hands of said user for two-handed operation of said crank mechanism.
 2. The device of claim 1 wherein said crank arm is a sole crank arm of the crank mechanism.
 3. The device of claim 2 wherein said hand grip is a sole hand grip of said crank mechanism.
 4. The device of claim 1 wherein said hand grip is sufficiently long to reach fully across a torso said user for manual grasping of said hand grip at opposing sides of the user's torso.
 5. The device of claim 1 comprising an upright support structure having a bottom end held in a stationary position, wherein said crank mechanism is carried on said upright support structure.
 6. The device of claim 5 wherein the upright structure is rigidly installed in a working environment via anchored attachment to a floor or ground structure.
 7. The device of claim 5 wherein the upright structure is mounted atop a floor seated base of greater footprint than the upright structure and the crank mechanism supported thereon.
 8. The device of claim 1 wherein the crank mechanism is supported in a height-adjustable manner to adjust an elevation of the rotational axis of the crank mechanism to a suitable working height for a given user or exercise.
 9. The device of claim 5 wherein the upright support structure is height-adjustable to adjust an elevation of the rotational axis of the crank mechanism to a suitable working height for a given user or exercise.
 10. The device of claim 8 wherein the adjustable resistance mechanism is carried with the crank mechanism, whereby movement of the crank mechanism to a different elevation also adjusts an elevation of the adjustable resistance mechanism.
 11. The device of claim 8 comprising an actuation mechanism by which raising and lowering of the crank mechanism is driven.
 12. The device of claim 11 wherein said actuation mechanism comprises a manual actuator handle for manually driven operation of said actuation mechanism.
 13. The device of claim 12 wherein the actuation mechanism comprises a gear train operably connected to the manual actuator handle to provide mechanical advantage in raising of the crank mechanism.
 14. The device of claim 1 wherein the hand grip is at least 12-inches long.
 15. A method of using the device of claim 1 comprising, with said hand grip held in a user's two hands, manually driving rotation of said hand grip about the rotational axis of the crank mechanism using both of said user's two hands.
 16. The method of claim 15 comprising occupying a working position facing across the rotational axis of the crank mechanism with the hand grip pointing laterally across the user's torso, and driving said rotation of the hand grip by performing alternating push and pull strokes respectively moving away from and back toward the user's torso.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the hand grip spans fully across the user's torso and, in said working position, and the user's two hands hold the hand grip on opposite sides of the user's torso.
 18. The method of claim 15 comprising occupying a working position facing along the rotational axis of the crank mechanism with the hand grip pointing toward the user's torso, and driving said rotation of said hand grip by performing alternating strokes of opposing lateral direction relative to the user's torso. 